Storm Rising

When a murder investigation turns Detective Kelli Storm’s attention to a drug kingpin, the last thing she expected was to find a link to her father’s killer from twenty years earlier. The Washington Height's neighborhood has turned deadly for NYPD detectives Kelli Storm and Bill Hayes. A young woman is murdered and Kelli tracks the killer to a Gentleman’s Club in Manhattan. After an unwilling witness is assaulted and left dying, Kelli and Bill turn their investigation in a new and more dangerous direction. When the DEA steps in and takes over, Kelli is forced off the case. Working behind the scenes, she pulls out one of her father’s old case files and starts making connections she never would have dreamed possible. An old gun, new witnesses and danger lurking in the shadows have storms rising all over New York City.

Storm Rising (Police Procedural)

By Kenneth Hoss

Fountain Blue Publishing

ISBN #978-1628681826

Price $13.95

302 Pages

Rating 4-Stars

Detective Kelli Storm works out of the 33^rd Precinct. Her father was also a detective before he was murdered twenty years previous. Kelli and her partner are looking for a local drug lord named Carlos Rodriquez for questioning, but when a young Puerto Rican prostitute is found murdered it swings her investigation away from Rodriquez. Yet the investigation doesn’t stray far. Plus, she learns that this case may lead to more information on her father’s death.

I really wanted to like this novel more. I love stories with strong female leads. This was supposed to be a police procedural, but it comes off like Dirty Harry. Remember Inspector Callahan? That series was intended as a police procedural also, but it was purely a men’s action series instead. Harry was always in trouble with his boss; he often took the law into his own hands, breaking down doors without warrants, shooting it out with the bad guys, and usually suspended for something he did, yet continued investigating the case on his private time. Kelli Storm is very similar. Remember, she is after Carlos Rodriquez for questioning. The police believe he is involved in drug distribution, and possibly several murders, but have no evidence and can’t prove it. Detective Storm would like to “talk” to Carlos. A stoolie reports seeing him enter an apartment building, and his Escalade is parked nearby, so that’s enough for Kelli and her partner to call in reinforcements (this happens at least twice early in the story). They bust into the building, kick doors down, and end in a shoot out. She even kills Rodriquez’s girlfriend during one invasion. Carlos has slipped out someway. No judge in his right mind would issue this woman a search warrant. They even find one man with dope and arrest him. Does illegal search and seizure sound familiar? How long will that arrest stick? Now I did believe Kelli was tough (for awhile). I mean she acts it with her partner and back up, but when two thugs break into her house, and she has a weapon in hand, instead of blowing the creeps away like Dirty Harry would do, she hides from them. No, Kelli Storm doesn’t come across as a police procedural for sure, and she also fails as Dirty Harry. Overall, this isn’t too bad, I recently read one mystery where a Wyoming sheriff drives his official car to North Dakota where he places a ND police chief under arrest, and deputizes local citizens to hold weapons on other citizens. The Wyoming sheriff would need a federal warrant just to pick up a prisoner already in ND custody. His jurisdiction ended in Wyoming, so we are getting some strange police procedural books today. I did like the author’s writing on Storm Rising, and the characters were well thought out. Kelli Storm would work a lot better if the author threw away the badge and made her a private detective. As a female lead I think she would work better that way. Still, a good read, and if you like female leads, I think you will like Kelli Storm. Give it a try.

Tom Johnson

Author of BEHIND THE MASK